Not applicable.
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to waterfowl hunting, and in particular, to a layout for a duck hunting preserve and a method for training ducks to fly within the preserve.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
It is often desired to provide a preserve within which hunters may shoot ducks, and it is also often desirable to fish in water provided in such a preserve. Prior art preserves are necessarily large and rather wasteful of land because groups of hunters must necessarily be separated by great distances so that they do not inadvertently shoot one another while shooting at the ducks. Furthermore, prior art duck hunting resorts rely on the unpredictable behavior of wild ducks, who only occasionally will venture into the hunting area when attracted by decoys and artificial duck calls. This unpredictability as to the presence of ducks can diminish the pleasure of hunting as hunters sit for hours without seeing a duck to shoot.
It is therefore desirable to have a duck hunting preserve that provides for higher density of hunters on a given area of land than heretofore possible. It is further desirable that such a duck hunting preserve provide a ready supply of ducks who remain in the preserve for shooting in a natural outdoor setting, without requiring any tethering or artificial restraint to retain the ducks within the preserve.
A preliminary patentability search in Class 43, subclasses 1 and 4.5, Class 273, subclasses 444, 447, and 140, and Class 473, subclass 466, produced the following patents, some of which may be relevant to the present invention: Van Der Mude, U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,615, issued Oct. 1, 1996; and Maiwurm, U.S. Pat. No. 1,409,227, issued Mar. 14, 1922.
None of these references, either singly or in combination, disclose or suggest the present invention.
The present invention is a duck shooting resort layout having a body of water that is preferably an elongated channel, a peripheral embankment encircling and containing the body of water, a duck hunting region within the duck shooting resort layout and including at least a portion of the body of water, and preferably one or more duck hunting blinds within the duck hunting region from which duck hunters may shoot ducks. While prior art duck shooting resorts are well-known, a significant and non-obvious feature of the duck shooting resort layout of the present invention is the providing of trained ducks that have been taught to fly only within, and not outside, the duck hunting region. A variety of embodiments of the invention, with islands, piers, or embankment fingers in the body of water, are described that safely allow a high density of hunters to be accommodated within a given area of land. A method of training the ducks of the present invention to fly only within the duck hunting region has been experimentally tested and is described. A method of construction of the duck shooting resort layout is described that allows a terrain of land to be sculpted into the structure of the present invention at a minimum of cost and movement of dirt. A variation of the invention is provided in which the depth of the body of water increases substantially monotonically toward one or both ends of the body of water so that fish may be harvested by partially draining the body of water and forcing the fish to the deeper ends, and a second variation of the invention is provided with one or more fish grading screens being provided at the ends of the body of water to allow trapping and collection of different sizes of fish by the fish grading screens.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a duck hunting resort having trained ducks that have been taught to fly only within a certain duck hunting region. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a duck hunting resort that safely provides for a higher density of hunters within a given area of land than heretofore possible. It is a still further object of the present invention to provide multiple uses of the resort by allowing growing and harvesting of fish in the body of water within the resort.